


Experimentum

by Dramadog15



Series: Camp Camp One-Shots [1]
Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Even if it's for practice tbh, Explosions, For Science!, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, I'm Bad At Tagging, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Science, Science Experiments, Secrets, Showers, Stuff, this was fun to write
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 07:44:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16614794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dramadog15/pseuds/Dramadog15
Summary: In a summer camp in the early 2010s, a young scientific mind brews once they find a hidden haven just beneath the ground...What hijinks will follow?





	Experimentum

**Author's Note:**

> So...
> 
> Hello everyone, it's Dramadog15, with another story ready for all you lovely people!
> 
> This is Experimentum, a bit of a different story if I'm being honest since I made this into a somewhat, not really, long one-shot. This story does not have the character or plot that would usually want in a story since this story is more of a practice for future works. The nicest thing you could do for me is simply leave a comment detailing what you like or dislike about the story since I welcome criticism of all kind, whether it's nice or mean.
> 
> I don't believe in censorship, so feel free to voice your opinions about this story in the comments.
> 
> By the way, yes, I tried doing fancy titles since there are time jumps throughout the story, so there's that. I really enjoyed writing this story, even during the dreaful grammar-correction part, so I hope you enjoy!
> 
> More info about future projects in the notes below!

>-=Experimentum ~ Neil=-<  
()>\--Camp Camp--<()  
)(=July 7th, 2011=)(

The dirt crunched beneath my shoes as I jogged through the forest. Shadows from the large elder trees flew across my face, one after another. I slowed down for just a second, turning my head behind me. No-one had followed me, thankfully, and all that stood behind me were some bushes reeking of animal waste. My face scrunched up in disgust before I returned to traveling through the woods. I hadn’t been at my secret lab in over a month, so I was nervously envisioning the possible states my lab was in. The lab could’ve been taken over by bears, or platypuses, or the literal thousands of animals in this god-forsaken camp. Maybe someone had found it, and ransacked it like a barbarian. Max would totally be the one to commit the crime if that was the case, or maybe Nikki, or even David. But I know Nikki or David couldn’t ransack it since they would feel “bad” about doing it.

I slowed down, bending over to catch my breath, knees throbbing. My knees had been killing me all day, actually, all week, and it was all Nikki’s fault. It was just last week, around 3 in the afternoon, when Nikki ran away from the camp. This wasn’t unusual mind you, Nikki does this a lot, just like Max, Preston, Nerris, actually, pretty much everyone actually does this regularly since we’re all teenage edge lords. But, considering that just earlier that same day, the police had shown up over what seems to be a missing person’s case, David was already on edge, and he got even worse when Nikki didn’t show up for bedtime. The next morning was quite interesting as well. In fact, maybe you should know about what happened.

()()=-Camp Campbell-=()()  
-=+One Week Prior+=-  
<>-June 30th, 2011-<>

David and Gwen woke us up earlier than usual by using the Quartermaster’s hook, which I felt was a bad idea after the fundraiser incident, but that’s beside the point. I was sleeping soundly in my tent for once, relaxed and at peace, when that horrible scraping sound dug at my ears like some messed up mining operation to dig down to my brain. I jolted up, shielding my ears from the unholy sound of a hook scraping against a trash can, and Max screaming profanities nearby. After an agonizing thirty seconds, the scraping stopped and Max calmed down.

A tall shadow passed our tent, thin as a pencil. “Morning campers!” David’s voice bubbled. “We will be starting today off in the Mess Hall, please get ready soon!”

I only got up because of the fear of hearing that choir of hook scrapping and screaming for the second time. I slid my dirt cupped shoes on and started towards the tent flaps. Max was still in his bed, eyes slanted and large. I wasn’t gonna stick around for another outburst from a small, angry, Indian boy. I raised the flap upward and looked around the tent area which was bare and only contained no more than two campers. Harrison was near his tent, eyes-sunken, adjusting his shiny top-hat. Three tents to the left of Harrison was Preston with a script in his hand. My eyes zoomed into the front page, which read, “Romeo & Juliet 3: The Great Capulet.”

_“He’s seriously doing another one?”_ I thought baffled. Preston glanced towards me, face beaming as he ran over to me in what felt like 5 seconds, fast enough to make me jump.

“Neil!” Preston shouted, shoving the script in my face, “I wrote another one, I need a critical mind to proofread it for grammar mistakes, you got it?” I opened my mouth to talk, but Preston had slammed the thick script into my arms. “Thank you, I will need it back by next week at the most!” Preston skipped back to where he came from, leaving me very miffed that he thought he could boss me around. 

I looked around for somewhere to dispose of the script when I noticed a figure coming out of my tent, the figure being Max of course, with a coffee mug in his hands. I walked over to him and extended my full arms outward. He looked down at the script, then back up at me with a sinister grin. Without even saying a word, he grabbed the script, marched over to the sizzling campfire just a few steps away from the tent, and dumped the papers. The white paper turned into a crusty black as black smoke flew from the fire. I covered my nose from the smell of ink burning, then Max walked back towards me.

He put one hand on my shoulder, “So, problem solved.”

“Well, I guess it is,” I replied, not really knowing how to feel.

Max though definitely felt happy, as happy as he could be, about stopping another terrible production of Romeo & Juliet, and I couldn’t blame him. Max drank a sip from his coffee before leaving me at the tent. I cupped my hands as I foresaw many possibilities of this decision, some being positive, others not. I honestly do this a lot, worry about any decision I make and the possible consequences, and even after I’ve thought extensively and made my choice, I still most of the time regret it hours later. I breathed in, right as David shouted from the Mess Hall doors. I had nothing better to do, so I just slogged up the small path to the doors, entering the Mess Hall. The Mess Hall was still a mess, funny enough, with splintered walls, missing floorboards, and unknown multi-colored stains on every plank. Gwen was standing near the back doors that led to the activities area, black rings around her heavy eyes. Gwen’s head was slightly tilted down, sometimes collapsing before jumping back up. David and a few other campers came in behind me and David walked up next to Gwen. Compared to Gwen, David looked like he had been awake for hours, but he still had that nervous grin he loved using so we wouldn’t worry. I looked to my right, seeing an empty table, and sat down after checking for puddles of liquid. Max came in last, as usual, and immediately went to sit next to me. Max rested his head on his arms crossed on the table where he breathed slowly through his nose. I looked away from Max at everyone else, who were effectively doing the exact same thing as Max. I slouched over, wondering what to do today.

“So, how’s everyone today?” David said, glancing around the room for a response, which he never got, “Alrighty, awesome! So, before we get into today’s activities, I have something to ask,” David paused and bit his lip. “Have any of you seen Nikki anywhere?”

His question was met with multiple shrugs and tilted heads like they were dogs. David took one noisy breath through his nose before continuing his speech. “Ok, if anyone does remember where she went, please be sure to tell me….” David said queasily. “Moving on, today, we will be doing… umm, Gwen, this is correct isn’t it?” Gwen shot her head up and walked over to David, stretching her head like a giraffe to look at the paper. Gwen shrugged, shoulders reaching her brown bangs. “So, I guess we are doing Swim Camp… again!”

Everyone groaned like dying raccoons choking on a greasy apple core. We had already done Swim Camp twice this week, and the last time we did it, that’s when Nikki vanished. David had sweat flowing off his face like a waterfall as he held the paper up to his mouth. The rest of the day was just straight up sad, since David constantly keep watch on us, mainly out of paranoia; Actually, the rest of the week was like that, even after Nikki came back. David had started a patrol route of sorts to prevent other campers from leaving unattended, but of course, it eventually fails. It might have taken a week of bribing Max, but once I had his help, getting to the lab without David’s attention was quite easy.

()()=-Camp Campbell-=()()  
-=+Present+=-  
<>-July 7th, 2011-<>

I looked for one specific tree, crooked and hugged by its mossy sideburns, that acted as a marker of sorts. I spun slowly, checking every single tree in my vision, but that tree wasn’t here. Another attribute of the area near the secret lab was hills of piled dirt, so I looked for that. My eyes darted around the samey-looking forest, until I found it, the dirt hills. I rushed over towards it, and sure enough, multiple dirt hills were littered around this patch of forest. The crooked tree was also here, right above a dirt hill, so I then went to the crooked tree to unlock the lab. There was a hidden brown panel etched in the tree that opened to reveal a large crimson button. The button squeaked, and the hymn of gears roared as a trapdoor opened in between two dirt hills. Mud and leaves streamed into the open hole as I stood above it. Inside the hole was an abyss containing nothing but darkness. I sat down, legs dangling over the hole, before flinging myself inside. I landed with a metallic pound in total darkness where the smell of oil filled the air. I raised my hands up, flailing them all around in the hope of something, preferably metallic or plastic, touching my hands. My hands felt something small, thankfully plastic, and I tried flipping my hand to see if this was a light switch. After the unknown switch clicked, lights started to power on one by one, revealing to me the expansive lab and the bundles of equipment that decorated the lab. I looked ahead of me, where I saw two large transparent green capsules that were bare on the inside, and to the right of me were two grey doors splattered with rust and two shelf stands to carry multiple different colored liquids contained in foggy bottles, and finally to my left was a large oak table with beakers and flasks placed all around the table, as well as one microscope blackened with dirt. I turned around, remembering that there was a small rusty ladder that led up to the surface. I smiled after confirming that no raccoons had taken over the place and that it was still in mostly acceptable condition. I turned to a control panel that was next to the shelves, where I began to turn on critical systems necessary for an experiment.

Gas, water, fire, electricity, all of it was needed, and each system came on, one by one. Loud clangs echoed past the walls as pipes and gears started to churn and turn; A faint sizzle whispered into my ear, and I turned to the source which was a large molded pipe with gas shooting out of a miniature hole. I practically jumped into action, first going to the shelf for anything I could use to seal the breach; I look up and down, where snow-white bandages met my eyes. I grabbed the bandages and jogged to the pipe and I then unwrapped the bandages into one strip. I circled the strip around the hole as it continued to emit a sharp screech. The screeching stop once the bandage fully wrapped, replaced by a rumbling sound that jittered the pipes. The immediate crisis was averted though, so I slumped over on the steel floor, no energy left in my body. My eyes felt heavy like an anvil was sewn to them, but after I noticed what seemed to be feces on the floor in front of me, I bolted upward and checked my clothes for any stains. With no stains in sight, I started the project that encouraged me to come here in the first place. At the dirty oak table, I pulled a drawer opened and found a dusty pack of papers that I had used to write out the information surrounding this project. The last time I seriously thought about this project was over a month ago, so my mind was void. Opaque images of blood samples and needles flooded my mind, trying to remind me of what the project was. Images and sounds shuffled through my head and I tried to fit them into a coherent timeline of events. There was a voice, Max’s, wait, that had to have come last, after the blood extraction.

The images finally aligned into a complete story, starting about a month ago, in June.

()()=-Camp Campbell-=()()  
-=+One Month Prior+=-  
<>-June 12th, 2011-<>

“Hello everyone, we will be doing….” David looked at Gwen who was holding an opened binder with K-Pop stickers covering it.

Gwen looked down at a slip of paper inside, “We’re doing Archery Camp, David, at the range,” Gwen slammed the binder shut and tossed it behind her.

“Well thank you Gwen!” replied David ecstatically, “So, everyone follow me to the Archery Range!” David turned and pointed to a trail opening in the forest.

Everyone had dead-blank stares on their faces, except for Nurf, who had a large starstruck smile; Considering how just a week ago, he shot an arrow that narrowly avoided striking David, instead, slicing at his hair, you could see why I wasn’t in the mood for archery. David started the trek towards the range, with us following suit. We winded and turned to multiple spots that looked identical for around twenty minutes. Gwen started to give David a funny look once we passed a tree with a dead squirrel in it, for the third time.

“Um, you’re sure we’re going the right way?” Gwen asked with her arms crossed.

David glanced around with his hand placed against his forehead. “Well, we might have to go there!” he pointed at a gradual downhill that led to nothingness.

“David, we’ve gone down that path three times, we’re going in circles!” Gwen shouted at David. “Look, I brought a map, how about we stop and catch our breath.”

“Um, Gwen…” David spoke softly with blushed cheeks. “I… got rid of the map.”

“YOU WHAT!?” Gwen seized David’s thin throat with her scorching red hands. “WHY WOULD YOU GET RID OF THE DAMN MAP!” Gwen was shaking David like a ragdoll at this point.

“Gwen, I just thought… maybe we don’t need it?” David nervously smirked. “DAVID, I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU GOT RID OF THE MAP JUST SO YOU COULD FEEL BETTER ABOUT YOURSELF, I WILL KILL YOU!” Gwen roared, face turning red.

Max, Nikki, and I were grinning at the sight of this chaos, showing why we became friends in the first place. 

Max's eyes lit up, which was rare for anything else but a fight. “What am I complaining about, this is the best day ever!” Max squealed. “Say, since they’re preoccupied, how about we go back to the camp and just blow off the activities?”

Nikki and I nodded firmly in agreement. We walked down the trail we came from as Gwen tackled David to the ground. 

“Wait, guys, where are yo-” Gwen yanked his hair back.

We traveled through a dirt trail past many dark trees casting shadows across the mossy ground. To our left was a large pitch black rock with moss resting on the sides and a large gash splitting down from the roof of the rock to the base. Max stepped ahead of us and slowly observed our surroundings.

“Shit, we might be lost,” he said bluntly. “Nikki, you know how to get out of here?” 

Nikki beamed. “Uh, duh!” she loudly inhaled air through her nose. “This way!” she pointed in between two trees, off the trail.

“Nikki… That’s no-” I said nervously before Max shouted over me, “Finally! Let’s get out of here.” He and Nikki went off the trail, leaving me behind. I held my sweaty hands up to my chin, glancing around. “Um… wait up you guys!” I shouted as I dashed toward them.

Max looked behind his shoulder towards me with a small smirk. I stopped beside Nikki, who was looking up at the tree branches. I glanced up as well; There was a poofy nest with three bubblegum pink baby birds inside. My ears caught the sound of wings fluttering as a larger sky-blue bird landed on the nest with a dirty worm in its mouth. The bigger bird dropped the meal and the baby birds pounced and started their feast. Nikki looked awestruck at the simple act of a mother feeding her young. I broke a smirk seeing Nikki’s bright colorful face, and for once, actually loved the nature around the camp. 

That infatuation lasted for literally nineteen seconds before the world decided to make my day worse.

I was looking at Nikki, which meant I wasn’t looking ahead, and before I know it before I’m done observing Nikki, I trip over a rock which sends me flying forward. I hear Nikki gasp before hearing my body slam against dirt and leaves. The world spins as I topple down a steep rolling hill and the leaves crinkle under me. I abruptly stop once I slam into a tree. I put my hand on my back to feel for a sore, which there is, and to make it worse, my back feels wet from blood and mud. I slowly get up, body aching, and I look to the top of the small hill, where Nikki and Max are watching, kneeled.

“Neil! You ok?” asked Nikki, face washed with worry.

“Neil, it looks like a bear shitted on you!” Max hollered.

I look at my hands and my shirt, all covered in mud. I step forward towards the hill, mud sloshing in my shoes, and start trying to march up the sloop. A boom fills the sky as a light streak through the forest, and rain starts to fall down. The rain pitters off the branches and turns the already muddy but solid hill, into a morphable mound. Max grabs his hood and tosses it on while Nikki flinches when the rain hits her eye. I try to grab a rock on the hill while my feet rest on a flat spot under me when the spot under me collapses and I slide back to the bottom. I stand up and face Max and Nikki.

“Guys, just go, I’ll get out on my own!” I shouted. “I’ll just find the trail again…”

Nikki vocally rejected the plan. “What? No Neil!” Max though shrugged and stood up. “He’ll be fine, let’s get back before we look like him.” Nikki grabs Max’s hand before he pushes her off. He walks out of view, which is what I asked for, but it still made me miffed. Nikki glances at me and asks me yet again if I’ll be fine. “You sure Neil?” I nod and she sighs before she too stands up and walks out of view.

A loud crash makes me jump as thunder roars in the sky. I turn around and start to walk away from the mound. My body feels frigid as mud drips down my clothes and I cover myself with my arms, which make a sticky sloshing sound when I press them against my chest. My shoes sink into each step I make in the mud as I pass through various trees, all shiny like gold. Raindrops assault my body for what felt like hours before I reached a small clearing. I spun around, seeing the same exit points I had used to get here. I pressed my hands against my head as I screamed and kicked small patches of wet dirt out of the ground. The only thing unique about this place was this dirt mounds, now mud mounds, that were scattered.

“Is this some kind of cultist grounds?” I thought, scratching my head. I leaned against a tree with mossy sideburns, which thumped like metal. I jumped back, before knocking the “wood” with a small fist.

_Thump_

_Thump_

**THUMP**

“This isn’t wood… it feels like metal…” I told myself. I backed away from the tree and observed the whole tree from leaves to roots. The rest of the tree looked normal, puffy green leaves glimmering in the rain, and roots marked and blackened with dirt. 

I went back to the false part of the tree and when looking at it, I noticed a small outline just big enough to squeeze your fingers in. I dug into the crack with my fingers. It took a few seconds of pulling with my sore and numb fingers to hear the crack indicating the metal panel was opened. The panel flew open and I flew back as my hands recoiled into my torso. I landed on the very mushy-sounding ground, which squealed as I rose back to my feet. I had already had a bad day given the mud hill incident, so I was inclined to accept that I had probably fallen into another mound of mud. I grumbled and returned to the panel, which was wide opened to reveal a large red button. I almost slammed my hand against the button, before something in my mind held me back.

_Wait, red buttons do usually mean death and destruction, I mean, after that incident with Max, I really don’t want to press red buttons anymore…_

I shuttered as Max’s words rung in my head, _“Neil, you’re being paranoid, everything will be alright.”_

_But, this isn’t that button, and honestly, I have nothing to lose_

I slammed the red button. 

There was a deathly silence before loud ringing and clanking shook the ground and behind me, dirt and mud started to be sucked down like a vortex. I grabbed the tree with both of my arms in an embrace as the shaking continued to rattle the ground and the trees like maracas. The shaking ceased abruptly as leaves glided down from the treetops that had just been shaking. I took long steps towards where the vortex was, and I saw a large gaping black hole.

_“Are you serious right now, there’s a goddamn secret hideout in this camp!?”_ My eyes seared with shock. _“This better not be like that torture lab thing on Spooky Island…”_ I saw a ladder that led down to the abyss, and I used it.

I stepped down around five or so prongs before my foot suddenly touched the ground, making me stumbled with my hands. I caught myself before I fell back like a domino. I hopped down onto the grated floor which had mud around the rims, but only the rims. I raised my hands out to feel for a light switch of some sort. I felt a smooth cold switch and I flicked it down. Lights began to buzz on one at a time throughout the whole unknown lab. My cheeks flushed with excitement as I ran around this large and stocked lab, which was surprisingly only a little dirty given how long it must have been sitting here.

_“Oh, my stars is that....”_ I glanced at a shelf containing familiar steel boxes. _“radios and computers!?”_

My eyes beamed towards the shelf of electronics and I bolted straight at the shelf, picking the shelf clean. I slammed the stack of radios and computers on a nearby wooden table. Inside a drawer marked _“Tools”_ was a screwdriver and a brown rusted drill, which I plugged into a socket behind me on the stained walls. The drill screeched to life, and I unscrewed the four screws in the back of one radio that was powdered with dust. The back panel slid away onto the table, and I saw that there were no batteries. I slammed opened drawer after drawer attempting to find the battery case, and in drawer three, marked _“Energy”_ , were dozens of battery cases. I shredded one open and pulled out the two red batteries and put them inside the radio and closed the panel back up, screwing the screws back on with the screwdriver. I flipped the radio over after the final screw rested in its spot, and began to fumble with the knobs and switches.

“__x __ _________” 

Static and muffled voices played back before a crackling sound made it impossible to decipher any other sounds. The signal was bad, so I rushed over to a drawer containing materials and I created a makeshift antenna, completed with duct tape on the tip. I balanced the long rod with both my hands as I attached it to the top of the radio. The antenna tilted slightly, but that was fine. I turned the knob back to where it began, and heard very muffled speech.

“M_x __ __nger__s, __u _us_ esca__. S___, yo__s_lf __f_re t__ _a_ren ___ith _e_s yo_, li_e __ ___ _ax.”

_“Still muffled?”_ I thought. _“Maybe if I go outside…”_ I peered up the hole to the outside which looked grey, but at least dry. I climbed out with the radio cradled in my left elbow and I turned the knob again to search for a frequency.

“Welcome to the Yum Show, with me, Claire, and my co-host, Chad!” the radio shouted. I turned to another frequency. 

“This is Agent 19-41, reporting on the recent behavior of the suspect, he appears to be trying to… wait, we might be breached, someone’s listening…” I turned the knob, powering off the radio. 

The sky was starting to become a greyish orange color as the mist in the air rolled back, so I went back down into the lab to put away the radio in a small compartment near some beakers and a lone centrifuge. Next to a beaker was a glass container holding multiple needles. A light bulb sparked on in my head, so I snatched the container and stuffed it inside my pocket. I walked towards the exit, the lights powered off, and I climbed out of the lab, returning to the panel to close the secret door. The doors screeched shut and I kneeled down so I could hide the door. I grabbed a handful of moist leaves caked with mud, before catching a view of a shovel in my peripheral vision, just laid out in front of a tree. I scooped up clumps of dirt and stacked them on top of the door, obscuring the rusted steel door.

I tossed the shovel towards a tree and I started to look for a trail. The crooked trees stood all around me, bark greying from age and the low-dropping branches obscuring the path ahead. I shoved a branch away and I saw a dark brown trail with glistening puddles resting. My body loosened up as I sighed in relief, then I walked down the trail. I strolled down the trail, past trees, past rocks, even past suspicious brown piles. The moon started to rise as the sun bowed, and a bright light shone in an archway made by the trees. Once I got closer, the light was being emitted from the counselor’s cabin. Outside the cabin were four dark shadows, blurry because of distance. I stepped closer, and the figures became clear, they were David and Gwen, as well as Nikki and Max. David had a royal purple eye that was swollen outward like it was trying to escape from David’s brain, which I couldn’t fault it for. David always denied it, but he totally took weed, or maybe not, he gives mixed-signals to all of us. David was a nice guy, of course, but something was off about him like he was hiding something. Gwen looked tired, like usual, same with Max and Nikki. Nikki was an early bird, who was like a tornado in the morning but became like a rock in the evening, and right now, with the moon out and the sun sunken, she looked three-quarters dead, and her face was sunken in. My eyes shifted over to Max who had a dead-blank stare and his hands were buried in his pockets. Max’s black-ringed eyes shot a glare at me, and Max then said something to David, probably around the lines of, _“Look, the science nerd is back, leave us alone.”_

David turned his head at me, and at this point, I wanted to run, but I decided to slowly shuffle toward David. David gave me a concerned, but miffed expression all rolled into one.

“Finally, I’m going to bed, see you, David,” Gwen shouted, relieved. David opened his mouth to retaliate, but Gwen had already vanished into the cabin. David turned back to me. “Neil, I was very worried, you guys can’t leave the group and you certainly can’t go off trail.”

“I mean, what were we supposed to do, Gwen was about to kill you,” Max said as he took his hands out of his pockets. “We were… simply getting help from the Quartermaster.”

“You were?” David asked with a bewildered expression. “Well… I guess it’s fine, just tell me that’s what you’re doing next time, ok?”

_“He actually fell for that?!”_ I thought as I held in a laugh. _“David’s fucking stupid, that’s what he is.”_

“Ok, you two can go to bed,” David looked at Max and Nikki, before turning to me. “As for you, you should really clean off your clothes in The Shower.”

Max and Nikki gagged at the mention of _The Shower_. _The Shower_ was just like the rest of this camp, filthy, and equipped with subpar-indoor plumbing. There was a fifty-fifty chance that if you used _The Shower_ , mud and some unidentifiable colored liquids would shoot out of the head instead of water. I slouched in defeat since I had no choice, I sure wasn’t gonna sleep in my own filth, unlike Nikki. 

The events that transpired next might be too disgusting for any _“Davids”_ in the audience.

I returned to my tent to get clean clothes and my own towel since the towels in _The Shower_ was not suitable for skin-contact, and instead, were more suitable for furnace fuel. Max came in with a face flushed with guilt and paused once he saw me.

“Neil, to be honest, just wash yourself off in the lake, last time I turned _The Shower’s_ head on, something...” Max said, voice cracking before trailing off.

I glanced at Max with a sorrowful expression before I exited the tent. I walked past all the tents, some lit up from the inside, some dark and dead. A long stretch of trail laid between me and _The Shower_. My joints tensed up as I got closer and closer to the small blocky building built up by dulled bricks. I placed my hand on the door handle, turning it. The handle creaked before the door popped open. I entered the wide room which had a white and black checkered floor that laid in between grey concrete walls that had brown and red streak marks across them. _The Shower_ laid before me, enclosed with glass, and its head rearing downward like how God would rear his head every time he saw humans today. I was not going to step inside this death square called a shower, so I leaned over to turn the head on and observe how the water was. The knob turned, and I dodged once the pipes embedded in the ceiling rumbled. After a few seconds, the shower head turned on.

Seriously, last warning for the _“Davids”_ in the crowd.

The ceiling shook and bounced as bursts of water shot out of the shower head. A crash boomed above me and a dark spot started to bloom on the ceiling. Water dripped from this black circle, and the head started to now burst sporadic shots of a mixture of a brown and red liquid, making the puddle on the ceiling a bloody brown. The liquid that just shot out smelled of a landfill if that landfill only contained carcasses of skunks. The shower head vibrated before firing off onto the floor. A jet of disgusting liquids so vile, Oscar the Grouch wouldn’t be in a fifty-mile radius of the source. A small tan object flew down onto the shower floor, and when I got closer, I saw that it was an ear, just an ear. The jet ceased for a few seconds, bringing a premature sense of relief to me. Loud rumbling signaled me of my mistake, and the ceiling started to crack like an elderly old white dude. The ceiling collapsed and multiple garbage bags and deer carcasses slammed on the shower, shattering the glass box and leaving a puddle of blood and feces. The last thing that fell was a red hook that was dulled on the top. The hook landed on a garbage bag, where the faint sound of bones crunching and blood squishing whispered in my ear.

Needless to say, I washed off at the lake that night.

After I had changed into a pair of clothes not stained from collar to cuff, I returned to my tent. The light was off inside the tent, the sound of water crashing on the nearby shore of the lake. I opened up the flap and entered, where I saw Max sleeping on his bed, dead quiet. He was still breathing, thankfully. In my hands were a stack of wet clothes I had just worn, so I shoved the clothes under my bed. The needle container I had placed in the pocket earlier fell out onto the dirt floor, and I paused for a moment.

_“Wait, there was a centrifuge in the lab… and tubes… hold on…”_ thoughts raced through my mind. _“I could clone with these materials!”_

I needed a blood sample, and the only available people were myself and an easily tempered sleeping kid. I pulled out a belt strung above my bed and wrapped it around my elbow, numbing my arm. I grabbed the lantern set on a dresser in between my bed and Max’s bed. The lantern flickered on and I focused on my arm. One blue vein appeared to me, and I steadied my breathing. I jabbed the needle inside, praying I got the vein. I pulled the back of the needle up, and inside, blood started to fill. Once the back couldn’t go farther, I pulled the needle out and unwrapped the belt. The blood-filled needle returned inside the container, which I slid underneath my bed. Tonight was a great night for me; I managed to find a secret haven in the woods, and I found the materials to start a cloning project.

That night, I dreamt of being Stephen Hawking’s son.

()()=-Camp Campbell-=()()  
-=+Present+=-  
<>-July 7th, 2011-<>

I scanned over the packet and gathered my supplies. Inside the centrifuge was four needles, all filled with blood. I powered the machine on and it started to spin like a carousel. I had a row of filled bottles and I grabbed the one marked “Egg Cells”. I had to ask for a favor from Max to get an egg cell since he “apparently” knew some people in the city. Max questioned why I needed an egg cell, and I simply responded at the time with, “For science”. I transported one egg cell onto a microscope. I collected DNA from the blood that was in the centrifuge and transported it into the egg cell. The egg cell was then moved into a large green capsule filled with a “special” preservation fluid. Everything was going very well until I heard footsteps rattling on the ceiling. I glanced over to the control panel which had an emergency stop switch, but I couldn’t press it, or else the egg would perish. My body slams against shelves as I rush towards the main entrance hatch where a locking-lever rests. I pushed the lever down and a loud click vibrates the hatch for a few seconds. The footsteps stopped, which gave me a moment to have breath. I celebrated too early though since the footsteps continued, this time though, the footsteps seemed to be circling the lab. The lights flickered once the person or thing above started to stomp on the ground. I spun around to find anything to use and spotted a cracked machete propped up against the wall. I picked up the machete with both of my hands, releasing a large breathe once it was firmly in my grip. I stepped over to the hatch and I used my left hand to hover over the lever. My hand shook and my face streamed sweat, but I opened the lock anyway. The lock clicked, and the stomping ceased for a second, replaced now by crinkling of the leaves. After a minute or two of being frozen in this one spot, the sound of gears rotating and engines blasting roared in my ears and the hatch began to open. I flung myself behind a shelf, peaking my head to observe the intruder. 

Soft footsteps rung off the ladder as a small figure descended into the lab. I was at a skewed angle, so getting a proper view of this person was quite challenging. The figure marched past the shelf and towards the green capsules, turning their head back and forth. My eyes widened once the figure became clear.

“Hmm, seems like something Neil would do,” Max said, looking straight at the green capsule that contained the egg cell. Max turned around towards the hatch, where a shadow from another figure outside the hatch flew onto the floor. “Hey, I found something!” Max shouted.

“Cool! We should go tell him!” Nikki’s voice echoed back.

_“Who the hell are they talking about?!”_ I thought, a flame erupting in my mind. Max was starting to leave, so I stomped into view. Max turned around and his face flushed with red once he saw me.

“Neil? Why are you here?” Max asked mouth cracked opened.

“That’s none of your business! Who were you gonna tell, who?” I screamed as my face crunched.

“Um, Max, is the plan off?” Nikki asked in a bewildered tone.

“Hell yeah it is, you guys will not rob this place from me!” I roared as the vein on my head became more pressurized.

“Wait, wait, you actually thought we were gonna tattle on you?” Max inquired. “Dude, Nikki just wanted to find something for you, since, this week has kind of been bad…”

That was odd, I didn’t get in a fight with Nikki this week, in fact, I haven’t gotten in a fight with her in over a mon-

“Max!” Nikki squealed. “That’s not true!”

Max darted his eyes away from me towards the cracks on the wall. My anger faded away as my face loosened. I put my hand on Max’s shoulder, where he responded with a shrug that flung my hand off. My hand swung back down to my side and I started at Max. A week ago, an incident had occurred, and I had gotten over it, but Max must’ve not.

()()=-Camp Campbell-=()()  
-=+Couple O' Days Ago+=-  
<>-July 3rd, 2011-<>

“So, we will be starting Pen-Pal Camp!” David announced with a clipboard in his splintered-filled hand. “I will be grouping each camper with a kid from all across the world!” David flipped the page and took a deep breath. “Nikki will be writing to Earl in the United Kingdom, Dolph will be writing to… Dolph, in Germany.”

Max was sitting across from me with his arms crossed on the table. “So Neil, what should we do today?”

“Well… we could light the outhouse on fire again,” I answered.

“Neil, this is why you’re awesome because you light outhouses on fire with me.” Max leaned forward and put his hand on my shoulder. “I think the Gasol-”

“Max will be with Rania from… Al Juma...hiriyah al Ar…um…. Libya!” David stuttered.

Max waved his hands in a fan-like motion. “That’s bullshit! I’m not even part of a camp, what would I talk about with her?!

David placed the clipboard on his hips. “Well, I’m sure she would have something interesting to tell you about Libya, and you could tell her something about America,” David looked back at his clipboard. “Honestly, not many people get to speak with something from a totally different country, so you should cherish it since it’s such a huge privilege and an honor to do this sort of thing because…” My ears numbed as David started his long tangent.

Max dropped his head onto his hand and kept giving glares to Gwen who was behind David during all of this. After what felt like an eternity, David finally ended the speech on _“multiculturalism”_ or something. 

“So that is why you should be nice to Rania, do you understand Max?”

Max nodded with his eyes half-closed and David just responded with a sigh and a slouched position. David rose the clipboard to his slumped head and read the last two names. “Preston will be with Sora from Japan and Neil will be with Jasmine from the Philippines… Gwen, can you pass out the pen and paper?”

Gwen walked around the room, laying a handful of pens and a stack of paper on each table. Nikki snatched two pens and a piece of paper and started to scribble on the paper. Max looked up at the pens, then dropped his head onto the table and groaned. I stared at the pile of materials, frozen stiff. Max raised his head up and looked at me.

“Neil, we need to get out of this, I will not write some letter to some chick from Libya,” Max grabbed the collar of my shirt. “Nikki!” Max turned his head towards Nikki.

“Yes?”

“Go and distract David for a minute or two, I have a plan.”

Nikki glanced at David, then smirked at Max. Nikki dropped her pencil on the floor and kicked it towards David. The pencil rolled on the ground, jolting upward everytime it hit an uneven plank. David tilted his head down, spotting the runaway pencil, and then bending over. He held the pencil out.

“Hey, whose pencil is this?” asked David.

Nikki ran up to him holding her arm out, “Mine, I’m so clumsy.” Nikki snatched the pencil from David’s hand and returned back to the table with me and Max.

Max and I gave Nikki some baffled stares. “What? I never have a plan,” Nikki said.

Max’s hand collided with his forehead as he puffed, “Nikki, just give me a moment.”

Max pressed his hand against his chin while Nikki continued to scribble on her paper. I glanced at David and began to scheme alongside Max.

_Maybe we could sneak out if we caused Harrison and Nerris to fight.. no, we did that last week._

_We maybe could break all the pencils and volunteer to get new ones… too obvious._

_We could al… wait, what?_

David shoved the doors wide open and curved out of view. Max looked at me bug-eyed and quivered his lips as he tried to speak. I took four double-takes to process what happened.

_David just up and left?! And what about Gwen?_

_I turned my head, Gwen was dead asleep._

_Oh my God, are you kidding me?!_

My eyes spun around and locked with Max’s eyes. We both slid off the bench and crossed the large room towards the back exit. Ered was sitting at the table closest to the back exit, and she glanced up from her writing. She smirked and gave us a thumbs up. I broke a smile and rushed out of the Mess Hall with Max at my side. Max shuffled ahead of me and vanished in between two dropped trees with me not far behind. We hopped over cracked logs and fat bundles of sticks and leaves, tossing wet rocks we picked up all around, striking trees and puddles of water. We walked for a while, passing forty or so trees on our left, I counted. 

Max stopped and turned to me with a wide grin from cheek to cheek, “Say, Neil, we should find those fireworks I and Nikki never got to set off.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Do you actually wanna see a firework, or do you wanna fuck with David?”

Max stared at me and shrugged his shoulders. I let out a puff of air and a gravely groan.

“Ok Neil, come, this is where I and Nikki hid the fireworks,” Max waved his hand and turned to a thick wall of trees and leaves. I slouched after him as he crossed most of the forest.

The beams of lights piercing through the gaps in the forest ceiling were beginning to dim. My bugged-eyes shot towards Max, who had his left chin facing me. His eye caught my glare and he stopped and turned to me.

“Max, we’ve been walking for a while, and it’s getting late…” I shivered as cold air slithers through my spine.

“Well, I thought the fireworks were this way… maybe this way…” he replied.

My face flared up, “You don’t know where the fireworks are Max, we need to just get back to camp, forget about the fireworks.”

“Neil, you can go if you’re too much of a pansy, I’m getting these fireworks.”

I grunted before stomping off away from Max. I didn’t even look at his face, so it’s a mystery if he was flushed with guilt, relief, or maybe just apathetic. I shuffled through bushes and pass trees, reaching a bright yellow light illuminating the moody sky. The fields surrounding the camp were barren, with the only sounds and streaks of light emitting from the tents and the Mess Hall. Nikki was spread out next to the campfire, eyes clamped shut. My eyes wobbled at her torso, and I then bent over to rattle her awake. I rattled her three times before she shot off my arms, landing a foot or two away from me. Her face was wide and shaken. She reverted back to normal once she slugged me in the arm.

“Ow!” I shouted. “What the hell Nikki?!”

“I thought you were a predator, or maybe a ghost!” Nikki shouted. “Just… what do you want.”

I tugged at my arm which was searing with hot pain. “Nothing, I was just going to go to bed.”

Nikki leaned and looked behind me. “Where’s Max?”

I shrugged, and Nikki’s mouth scrunched up. I waved my hand and set off towards my tent. I lifted the flap open and crawled into the tent. I squinted my eyes and found my ruffled bed. I climbed onto my bed. I tossed my shoes under my bed and snuggled underneath the shredded blanket with threads curling. My head crushed the puffed pillow and my eyes closed with the weight of ten men on my eyelids. My senses fuzzed and my mind became clear.

_BOOM_

_Wha-_

**BOOM**  
**BOOM**  
**BOOM**

My eyelids fluttered open, and my body shot up. Flashes of light beamed in the tent flap opening as the screams of an explosion rang out. I twisted my body and reached my hands under the withered bed. My hand bounced around until I felt the beaten threads of my shoes, and pulled them out. I twisted my shoes on and hunched over towards the tent flaps. My arm rose the flaps, where outside, the black sky was sleeping overhead, waking up with explosions of multi-color lights every few seconds. In front of the centerfire was David, hands threatening to rip out his red-oak colored hair. Large orbs of blue and purple light exploded and faded away. David turned around, showing his drooped face, eyes black-ringed and shriveled. 

“Everyone… just go back to your tents, everything is alright…” A purple spark burst into flame and climbed David’s cargo shorts.

Panic struck David’s body, flinging him over rocks and into a tent. Cries emitted from the collapsed tent as David flopped around atop like a fish. Gwen jogged in out of nowhere with a sloshing bucket and threw the contents onto the fiery pile. Water drenched the flames, suffocating them. The bucket rattled on the ground as Gwen fell to her knees.

“Is…” Gwen exhaled. “everyone alright?”

My lips opened to speak, right as a blinding blue flash jumped into my eyes, pushing me back. Gwen gasped as I launched back, crashing on top of a rock. A sharp bout of heat clawed at my left arm as my vision blurred and refocused. I could hear nothing but a consistent stream of a ring until small footsteps caught my attention. Nikki, silhouette blurry, appeared above me and drenched a bucket full of water on me. I pushed up against the waterfall beating down on me.

“Neil, you alright?” asked Nikki, shivering. “You were on fire, so I…”

I glanced at my left arm which felt naked and raw. The sleeve was black and mangled and the skin under it was bubbly and red. Gwen kneeled and brushed my arm, which felt like the skin was trying to escape from a searing metal cage placed on top of a fire.

“Neil, we need to get this patched up,” Gwen said.

David was upright near Nikki, I could hear his voice, although it strained my ears to do so. “Nikki, where did you last see Max?”

Nikki’s shoulders jolted upright. “I have no clue where he went David, he didn’t tell me he was gonna use fireworks.”

Gwen tapped my shoulder, and I glanced at her. She grabbed my hand and pulled me up with a shocking amount of strength for someone who likes Woofmance dramas. My arm was still killing me, stinging with pain more than that one time I got stung by bees when I was six.

()()=-Wisconsin-=()()  
-=+5 Years Prior+=-  
<>-September 14th, 2005-<>

Actually, never mind, that’s a story for another time, back to the firework fiasco. I and Gwen started to head out to the Counselor Cabin so she could fix up my firework burn, and then Max shows up, right above the hill in the distance. David dawns a frown, a rarity, and folds his arms together. Gwen stops moving and gives Max all the hatred she possibly could through a stare. 

Max visibly sighed before stopping in front of David. “What’s your problem?”

David grunted, curling up his nose before he replied. “Max, did you set off those fireworks?”

Max gave David avoid blank stare. David squeezed the bridge of his nose with his fingers.

“Max, you almost killed people with that stunt, look at Neil!” David shouted, causing me and Gwen to look on in shock, as this was unprecedented. 

Max glanced at me, and for a brief second, his eyes seem to droop from guilt, before he rose them up again. “So what David, you don’t have any control.”

I pulled away from Gwen, my blood boiling more than my wounded skin. “Max, what the hell, you almost kill me and you don’t even care?”

Max started to raise his volume and turn red. “Neil, I honestly don’t know why you expect not to get hurt at the shithole camp, I mean, you did force the Quartermaster's hook and those ribbons down Nikki’s throat a month ago.”

“At least I apologized to her afterward, which you never saw because you only hang out with us when you have something to benefit from!” I pressed my finger against Max’s small chest. “God, I knew you were apathetic, but not like this…”

Max thrust his whole body into me, knocking me backward and almost causing me to fall again, where this time, I managed to catch myself by my heel. Max shoved his hands into his pockets and sped off towards the woods. David shouted bloody murder, but to no prevail. I was breathing, almost snorting, when Gwen came back behind me and tugged at my arm.

“Neil, let’s get this patched up before it gets infected with Spattergroit or something like that.” Gwen pulled me back along the trail that shot towards the Counselor's Cabin.

Gwen applied some sort of cream and a bandage to the area and sent me on my way. Gwen usually wasn’t involved enough in these situations to help us, but today was an exception. Maybe she should have gone to Nursing School rather than get that Liberal Arts Degree. 

()()=-Camp Campbell-=()()  
-=+Present+=-  
<>-July 7th, 2011-<>

“Max, you didn’t do this because you felt ba-” I began to ask before Max flared up.

“I didn’t do anything, I just wanted to do something with this stupid lab.” Max spat out. He bent his head toward the ground.

I smirked, I knew he wasn’t going to admit why he wanted me to have the lab, it was like him to do this. Nikki turned her head to me, then Max.

“So, if Neil already knows about this place, what now?” Nikki asked, hand pressed against her cheek.

“Well, I guess we could just go, and maybe, I don’t know, blow up an outhouse or something,” Max mumbled.

Nikki groaned. “But we’ve done that so many times, how about we just stay here for a while!”

My eyes nearly jumped out of my sockets when she said that. I reached my hand out to stop them, but they already started to explore the lab. Nikki swept the shelves, rattling the beakers and flasks and juggling the liquids inside. Max released an exacerbated sigh and passed me to stand near the entrance of the lab. Nikki’s shoulder thrust back and forth, striking a flask full of neon green liquid and sending it crashing on the ground with a sharp screech. 

I walked to her with my hand outstretched. “Nikki, stop!” she froze like a deer and gave me the deer in the headlights look.

“Oh, sorry,” Nikki said with bluntness weaving through her voice. “before we go, Neil, can you please tell us what you are working on?”

I squinted my face at her and she gave me a puppy look. “Ugh, fine, just don’t touch anything.”

Nikki took a mighty hop like she was a rabbit and hopped over to stand next to me. Max trailed behind the both of us. I toured them through the shelves of technical equipment, through the rows of tables that were polluted with paper and pencils, and finally, the clone holder.

“What’s that supposed to be?” Max waved his hand at the levitating egg. “Oh dear God, don’t tell me it’s…” I had an open grin plastered on my face. “Jesus Christ Neil, really?”

Nikki’s eyes sparkled with stars and she pressed her body against the green-hued glass. “Who are you cloning, me?”

“Well, this one is me…” I replied.

Nikki snickered and she ripped her face off the glass and turned to me. “This is so cool Neil, how long will it take to create the clone?”

I fluttered my lips for a moment. “Well, this is the issue I’m having…” I stepped up toward the specimen. “It would take at the minimum nine months for this clone to be fully created, and I don’t have that time…”

“So, where would you put it?” Max asked.

“I have a lab at home, the problem is transporting it… that’s why I developed a container specifically for containing egg cells!” I shuffled over to the white closet and dug through the mound of supplies. 

In the corner of the mound, was the container, still sparkling from the first time I washed it. I pulled it out and approached the green tube. I turned to Nikki, then Max.

“Look, I need your help to get the egg out safely, just don’t screw it up.” Nikki saluted and Max shrugged, the perfect signs of success, clearly. “Ok, Max, go to that control panel, don’t press anything yet, and Nikki, hold on the handle on the side, don’t pull.”

We all spiraled to our positions, Max was near the control panel, Nikki and I were gripping the handles that opened the capsule. “Max, push the light blue button.”

Max’s finger hovered over the light blue button, then it shot over and slammed into the magenta button. My face morphed into a hundred shapes designed to say, “No!”.

“Max, that’s the magenta button!” I cried out.

“It looked light blue to me though…” Max pressed his hand against his head.

“Oh my God, what are you, colorblind?” My fists started to heat up.

Max’s eyes dulled for a second, before reigniting with that bright green color we all know. “Oh, that explains a lot…”

“What, are you actually colorblind?” I looked dead straight at Max, who gave me an expression mixed with confusion and shock. “You have got to be kidding me, Max, just hold the damn handle for a moment.

Max rushed to the handle and took it over and I jumped to the control panel. The magenta button he had press was labeled with a faded, _“Emergency Shutdown, Applies in Two Minutes.”_

_Shit_

I prodded the light blue button so hard, my finger nearly snapped, and a hiss and puff of air from the ceiling pipes indicated it worked. The capsule grew frost curtains that were sprawled from one top corner to another. The hiss went away with a crackling thump and a green light that shone on the capsule indicated it was ready. I shouted at Max and Nikki to open the capsule, and the two doors spread open to show the solid green mass with the egg in the middle. Inside the container was a custom tool I made in order to cut out the egg that was cylinder shaped and sported steel teeth on every line. I pressed the tool against the frosty green and leaned back to attempt to pull out the egg. The egg stayed in place, taunting me as a loud beep indicated thirty seconds before a shutdown. Nikki stepped behind me, and gave me a bear hug, before yanking me and the egg out. I landed on the ground with the green cylinder cradled in my hands.

“We did it!” Nikki shouted, tossing his fist into the air.

“That…” I took a deep breath. “was way too stressful, jeez.”

Cutting our celebration short though, the lights perished and darkness cloaked the lab, making the only visible thing the rays of glimmer from each of our eyes. “Aw shit, we need to press the yellow button for emergency lights.”

A sharp crack of a flashlight switch turned my head towards a cone of light against the control panel, the source being a flashlight Max had on hand.

“You said yellow right?” Max asked.

“Yeah, I di-” I froze and my body stiffened like a board. “Wait, hold o-”

He pressed a button.

There was a distracting silence that carried the tension in the air. Finally, it was interrupted by a voice, drowned out by static, that said, “The power is currently off, would you like to turn it on, say yes or no to confirm.” 

“Yes!” Nikki shouted as I dove to cover her mouth.

“Crap, no, no!” I stuttered, a great fear built up in my body, and it shivered.

“Yes registered, have a nice day.” The voice responded.

I snatched Nikki's shoulders and pressed her face against my enraged eyes. “Nikki, why don’t you wait instead of being so compulsive!”

“Well, don’t we want the power on?” Nikki said in such an innocent tone. A fucking Teletubby would think she was too innocent for this world.

I dropped her shoulders and rushed over to Max. “What button did you press?”

His finger extended towards a red button covered with a piece of tape marked, _“Emergency Explosion.”_

A deafening crack shook my mind and I yanked Nikki and Max, small they were, to the exit. Nikki scrambled up the ladder, rattling it as the hinges bellowed. Max was next, his lightweight eased the pressure pressed on the ladder. A calculation that resulted in the ladder collapsing on me appeared in my mind, but I had to try. My foot slammed on the bottom rung, causing the ladder to shake as a violent earthquake roared beneath the Earth. Each rung vibrated and cracked, the steady bumps interrupted by an almost dead-toned voice, “Twenty seconds until the explosion, have a good day Mr. Campbell.”

The final rung cried as it sunk against my weight. A low rumbling and the hinges became crooked as the ladder was pulled down. I pushed myself up and reached out to Nikki’s extended hand. My hand connected with the small hand and a forceful wave brushed upon Nikki as she flew forward. Max reached around Nikki like he was doing the Heimlich Maneuver as his shoes squeaked on the dirt-ridden steel. My veins transported strength to my strained arm, carrying me out of the hatch and onto the ground next to Nikki and Max. Before we even had an opportunity to breathe, a transparent voice whispered to the three of us.

“Ten seconds, it was a pleasure serving Camp Campbell.”

_Aw shit_

My legs sprang and launched me, a noodle-legged nerd, bolting like I was a streaker at a local baseball game. Like any good group of streakers, Max and Nikki trailed behind atop the dust cloud chasing me. A family of trees walled off an easy escape route, so I dove to the left in order to escape the reality of slamming into a tree and getting blown up like a certain friendly ghost I knew. The elevation of the ground waved around as knobby roots hugged the ground stumbling me up multiple times. Blood rattled in my head like it was some sort of roller coaster and the blood was a poor, poor rider flipped and tosses like a rusty Nickel. Vines and branches slapped my head and brushed my hair into a wannabe Super Saiyan slick-up. Thoughts were racing just like I was, creating such riveting and life-changing questions such as…

_Would I be good enough to meet Stephen Hawkings up there?_

_Wait, how do I know about that in 2011?_

_Why hasn’t this bloody lab exploded ye-_

**BOOM**

The fiery rings of Hell all roared out of the fractured ground. Leaves were dumped in fat bundles from the treetops as fire licked the bundles. The shattering explosion had started to fade, sending a signal of relief to the three of us, until rocks started to rain tailed by fiery tails. No thought in my mind, I bolted through the forest, swiping left and right as fire danced in the molten air. The trees erupted into a rage of flames, creating deadly rings of fire that me, Max, and Nikki had to hop past, one at a time. In front of me, chips flew off a tree as it splintered and slid, crashing just ahead. The top of the fallen log was a conga-line of fiery dancers, underneath the flames was a squashed hole, big enough for a midget, on ground level. I ground on the ground under the log, burning my legs, but at least looking cool in the process. I didn’t know where Nikki or Max where, and with death raining from the sky, I couldn’t check if they were still with me. A straight trail in front of me pointed to the Mess Hall in the distance, so it was one more long run to safety.

Suddenly, a cloud of dust shot up in the air just a couple of feet ahead of me and the ground violently rumbled. My body jolted up, almost losing balance as I tilted back and forth before regaining my balance. I turned around, Nikki bolted past me like a cheetah version of Lance Armstrong, but Max had fallen. I launched towards him past the waves of dust hovering in the air. 

Nikki shouted, “Neil! You dropped the cylinder!”

I continued to run, the cylinder could wait. I reached to Max, who swiftly grabbed my hands. I pulled him up, and we turned back towards the Mess Hall. The cylinder wasn’t on the ground, my gut told me it was gone, evaporated by the molten mortal rain. For around twenty seconds, we just ran as shoots of dust sprang up behind us. The archway of the forest exit lied ahead, Nikki waving frantically underneath. The ash and smoldered tree bark behind us; We dove out of the forest.

We rolled out of the exit, down a sloping hill, before we ground to a halt in a flower patch. Nikki rushed to us and had a face like she just saw David utter a swear.

“That was…” Nikki’s eyes glistened. “Incredible! Neil, I didn’t know you could do stuff like that!”

The bottom half of my body felt like multiple vice grips had ripped in and twisted the contents it snagged. “Nikki, I probably broke multiple bones with all the flips and dives.”

Nikki snorted and reeled back and Max lifted himself off the ground. Max turned to the great fire that topped the forest roof, then he turned to me. “Hey, it kinda sucks the clone thingy got destroyed…”

I puffed out air, “Max, it’s honestly fine, at least we didn’t get exploded...again.”

Max glanced up to me for a brief second, before repulsing back. Nikki was snickering like a rat until I turned to her and her scrunched up face collapsed. Air was still wheezing out of Nikki’s tomato-like face.

“Well…” Nikki snorted and reached behind her back. “It’s right here.”

She held out her opened hand, cylinder resting, and I snatched the cylinder. “Nikki, you’re the best!” I brought Nikki in for a bear hug, which she returned.

“So, we got the cylinder thingy and we lived, can we go on with our lives no-” I lifted Max in a tight embrace, tight enough to keep him from squirming out. Max’s cheeks bloomed as Nikki and I snickered. The birds hummed over the rising ash that eventually fell back to the Earth like snow. The sun continued to beam up high and lit up our camp, even if it was a broken mess. Sometimes, the most broken things are the most beati-

“WHAT THE!?” David flared. “WHY IS THERE A FIRE IN THE WOODS!”

The three of us connected with beaded eyes, and Max whispered,

“Shit”

>-=Experimentum ~ Neil=-<  
()>\--Camp Camp--<()  
)(=THE ~ END=)(

**Author's Note:**

> Yay, you read it!
> 
> Be sure to leave a comment detailing your criticisms and thoughts on Experimentum! Even though this is more of a hobby rather than a pursue of a serious writing career, criticism will help me improve and in turn, give you all better stories in your favorite fandoms! I'm currently working on a much bigger story, a Camp Camp story in fact, and I really want all the practice I could get before this so it turns out well!
> 
> That story will have to wait though.
> 
> Next story will be a revisit to something I haven't done for months, so be sure to be on the lookout :)
> 
> Thank you all for reading Experimentum, have a good day everyone!
> 
> -Dramadog15


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